About the Fatima Tour for Peace
Why take a statue on a tour?
The purpose of a Pilgrim Virgin Statue tour is to introduce people to Our Lady’s message of hope, peace and salvation, and to bring the graces of Fatima to those many millions of people who may not otherwise have the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Fatima itself.
A visit from the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue is a spiritually powerful event for the faithful, and the most effective means to spread Fatima’s urgent message anew.
Visits include processions, Mass, confession, presentations on Fatima, scapular enrollment, Rosaries, Marian consecration, Holy Hours of Adoration, and private veneration.
Special programs can be created for school children and other groups.
Our Lady Travels the World
The world-famous International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima is recognized as the primary way in which the message of Fatima spread throughout the world and continues today.
Sculpted by Jose Thedim—“the Michelangelo of Portugal”—the statue has been traveling internationally since 1947.
On October 13, 1947, in the presence of 200,000 pilgrims at Fatima, the statue was blessed by the Bishop of Lieria-Fatima and commissioned to serve as the Pilgrim Virgin.
The bishop prayed that Mary herself accompany the statue wherever it goes. Millions of people have felt the presence of Mary through the image.
She was then flown to America, where she was crowned in Ottawa, Canada, and began a 2-year tour of Canada and the U.S.
She has since traveled to over 100 countries, claiming her dominion and carrying Fatima’s blessings and urgent message to people worldwide.
Our Lady Travels the U.S.
The National Pilgrim Virgin Statue is a beautiful, hand-carved image of Our Lady of Fatima, sculpted by Jose Thedim’s son. It was given to the United States by the bishop of Fatima after being blessed by Pope St. Paul VI in 1967. She was crowned by Cardinal O’Boyle at the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC in 1971.
This statue travels across the United States under the sponsorship of the World Apostolate of Fatima, USA, Our Lady’s Blue Army. She has proven time and again to be the catalyst for renewed interest in the message of Fatima, and for introducing new generations of Catholics to Our Lady’s important message of conversion and peace.
The Peace Plan from Heaven
Our Lady came to Fatima, appearing often as a sorrowful Mother concerned for her children on earth. She warned about the coming moral evils that largely unfolded throughout the 20th Century beginning with WWII, if people did not cease offending God. But she gave us a Peace Plan from Heaven that could avoid these evils and bring peace to the world. The story of Fatima is amazingly powerful and for our times because its prophetic mission is still unfolding.
Our Lady’s Exhortation
Our Lady exhorted all her children to amend their lives and become fervent in working for the salvation of souls. Our penances and prayers for others are central to Our Lady’s message because she identified the conversion of sinners as the key to peace in the world.
Her message is one of hope as she promised:
“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
The Essential Requests of Our Lady of Fatima – the Peace Plan – are the following:
Offer daily the sufferings that God permits in your life for the conversion of sinners.
“Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
Pray the Rosary every day
“Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary…because only she can help you.”
The Blessed Mother requested this at each of the six apparitions, May – October, 1917, especially to obtain peace in the world.
Consecrate yourself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
“You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.”
Consecrate yourself to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary and wear the Brown Scapular as a sign of your devotion to her.
Practice the First Saturdays Communion of Reparation
“I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays…”
- Go to confession
- Receive Communion
- Recite the 5-decade Rosary
- Meditate for 15 minutes on the Mysteries of the Rosary
Our Lady requested this devotion on five consecutive months with the intention of making reparation for the offenses against her Immaculate Heart: 1) against her Immaculate Conception, 2) against her perpetual virginity, 3) against her divine maternity at the same time refusing to recognize her as Mother of mankind, 4) of those who openly seek to foster in the hearts of children indifference or contempt and even hatred for this Immaculate Mother, 5) of those who directly outrage her in her sacred images
About the Statue
The beautiful image of Our Lady of Fatima was designed by famous sculptor José Thedim in 1947. Sister Lucia herself instructed him, and later remarked that she had never seen any image which so resembled the actual apparition of Our Lady.
The bishop of Fatima entrusted the image to John Haffert, co-founder of the Blue Army, and prayed that Mary herself accompany the statue wherever it goes. It has traveled around the globe many times for more than76 years and continues its journeys today under the custody of the World Apostolate of Fatima, USA – Our Lady’s Blue Army.
An uninterrupted flow of graces and favors have been reported wherever the statue has traveled, including physical cures (which can only be officially pronounced by Church authorities), favors granted and numerous conversions.
The purpose of the Pilgrim Virgin Statue tours was and still is to bring the graces of Fatima and Our Lady’s message of hope, peace and salvation to those many millions of people who may never have an opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Fatima itself.
Explore the Statue’s History
About the Custodians
Patrick Sabat
Program Manager and Primary Custodian
Patrick Sabat completed his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at Our Lady of Peace College Seminary in the Diocese of Tarlac, Philippines. While still discerning the vocation to the priesthood, he enrolled at the Jesuit-run university, Ateneo de Manila for masteral studies in Philosophy and later held a teaching position at the Tarlac State University. He hosted Catholic radio and TV programs, and ventured into a computer/media production business. When he got married, they immigrated to Singapore for a couple of years. He was asked to accompany the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue (IPVS) of Fatima in 2003, mostly to Asia and Australia, and five years later (2008) gave up his university career and businesses to work full time as the IPVS Statue custodian worldwide.
Patrick has traveled internationally spreading the message of Fatima and promoting devotion to Our Blessed Mother and the Eucharist, the Rosary and the Scapular. He has delivered engaging talks during conferences and various presentations in many different settings, including churches, schools and universities, correctional facilities, nursing homes and hospitals. Our Lady has shown him the wonderful work of a lay apostle through the Pilgrim Virgin Statue Program, and the vocation he was searching for himself.
Patrick continues his teaching mission as the principal statue custodian and now the Director of the PVS Program of the World Apostolate of Fatima, USA (The Blue Army). He has been a frequent guest on radio and television, and has given hundreds of media interviews including EWTN, Relevant Radio, Fox News and CBS News among others. He and his wife, Mary Anne, and their 3 young children: Elias, Patrick Jr., and Marci Anna, live in Munster, Indiana as proud American citizens.
Larry Maginot
Co-Custodian
Larry Maginot traveled with the International Pilgrim Statue for 2 ½ years, from 2006 to 2009, then returned home to care for his elderly mother.
Larry first became convicted by the message of Fatima in 1986 after having served honorably in the Army as a trained infantryman, paratrooper and ranger, reaching the rank of sergeant, E-5. Soon after his enlistment, the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue visited his home parish.
Though he was raised in a devout family and had the habit of praying a daily rosary from his youth, this visit greatly strengthened his faith and spirituality. After completing 3 years of college, Larry was discerning a religious vocation and arranged to live and work at the Carmelite Monastery and Shrine in Munster, IN.
He spent the next 7 years there growing in knowledge and understanding of the Catholic Faith and Carmelite Spirituality. He left the monastery in 1997 and entered into a landscaping business with his brother. Nine years later, Larry responded to a request to travel with the International Pilgrim Statue. This same year he enrolled in the Bachelor’s Completion Program of Catholic Distance University. In 2011, he graduated with a degree in Theology, concentrating much of his writing on the message of Fatima.
In 2019, he published The Marian Manifesto: How Devotion to the Immaculate Heart will Renew the World. Larry resides in Cedar Lake, Indiana, with his wife, Chimgee, and their two daughters.
Thomas Ross
Co-Custodian
Thomas Ross was asked to travel with the IPVS during the U.S. coast to coast “Centennial Tour for Peace”, when the statue came to his parish on February 13, 2017. Honored but uncertain, he quickly found God’s will made plain when Larry, the custodian who asked him, had a gallbladder attack later that very day and soon found himself having surgery. He has been traveling with the statue ever since, in between various work assignments at the National Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Washington, New Jersey, headquarters of the apostolate.
Tom has a degree in Biology from Purdue University. Before joining the WAF/Blue Army, he worked for a consulting company supervising field crews, operating heavy equipment and doing environmental restoration. He also spent 10 years with his county park department as a “naturalist” leading tours, coordinating events and managing the nature center. He and his wife, Rose, have seven children, and reside in Highland, Indiana. Their oldest son is a priest in the diocese of Gary. Their second son is discerning a call to the diocesan priesthood. When home from the road, Tom volunteers at his parish as a lector, assistant sacristan, coordinator of Communion to the homebound minister and groundskeeper helper. He enjoys cooking and applying his skills as “chef de maison.”